By Sean Higgins, Interpretation & Education Manager, North Carolina State Parks
In 2015, I attended a webinar hosted by NASPD where rangers with the Mississippi River National Recreation Area shared their success taking urban youth on the Big River in Big Canoes. America’s state and national parks inspired me that day. I instantly knew we needed Big Canoes in North Carolina!
I started advocating for the boats with coworkers and Friends Group volunteers every chance I got. Many laughed at first mention of the 14-person canoes. But I had my talking points ready:
Even skeptics turned to supporters as they realized this wild idea just might float. Then in 2018, our North Carolina Friends of State Parks purchased two 29’ Clipper canoes and a trailer from the Western Canoe and Kayak Company in Abbotsford, British Columbia. The oversized shipping was so expensive that a more thrifty way to transport them involved two park staff flying to Seattle, renting a U-Haul and towing the boats across the country. Along the way, they took canoe selfies from some of the most iconic National Park sites. NASPD President and CEO Lewis Ledford called while they were halfway across the continent to ask if they might take a few scenic state parks photos as well. We’ll circle back to that idea.
Jeff Davidson and Ryan Swikle with the Big Canoes at North Cascades National Park, 2018.
For the next five years, guiding programs and field trips with the Big Canoes was even more successful than I had imagined. More than 10,000 people explored the natural waterways of North Carolina aboard the boats, named Loggerhead and Hellbender. From the Appalachian Mountains at Lake James State Park to the Atlantic barrier islands at Jockey’s Ridge State Park, the canoes traveled extensively. With a primary purpose of serving elementary and middle school field trips, students regularly see bald eagles catching fish or have a dragonfly land on their shoulder. Students also overcome their fears, get exercise and practice teamwork skills. The canoes have been used for scouts groups, Boys and Girls Clubs, special events and parades. The main challenges are that we’ve spent much time and fuel driving highways across the state, and we have to decline dozens of requests each year due to the program’s popularity. By 2023, we realized we could probably use two more Big Canoes.
Sunset-moonrise Big Canoe program at Jordan Lake.
Fourth grade field trip to Lake James State Park.
Dedicated to Our Community, a service organization of middle and high school students, raised $7,500 for a second fleet of boats in 2022 and 2023. These youth enjoyed the canoes during service projects, and their fundraising determination was touching. Friends of State Parks raised the remaining funds and our two new boats were ready by summer 2024.
Middle and high school students present the North Carolina State Parks team with a check from their community fundraising efforts.
Once again, two boats needed to be transported from the U.S.-Canada border in Washington. For this second round delivery, I had the privilege to be one of two cross-country truckers, along with my Outdoor Recreation teammate Alex. I recalled Mr. Ledford’s request from six years earlier that we try to stop at some state parks along the way. Fortunately, the abundance of state parks made the overnight accommodations and stretch breaks on our route easy. Even better, the unique stories and dedicated staff at these parks made the journey unforgettable.
Here are some highlights from Sean Higgins and Alex Lemon during our 3,000-mile Big Canoe Cross Country Adventure from July 22nd-28th, 2024.
Park geeks like us prefer a cabin in the woods to a hotel on the highway. We enjoyed giving and receiving encouragement from hikers along the strenuous trail to Wallace Falls.
Quite the opposite of the Cascades, Eastern Washington is an arid canyon-land. We met Washington State Parks interpreters to learn about one of Earth’s all-time biggest waterfalls! Dry Falls raged with water nearly 1,000 feet high and more than 3 1/2 miles across as ice dams burst from melting glaciers. Mega-flood waters ripped prehistoric rhinos and whole forests downstream. Park interpreters and science educators helped us imagine these catastrophic floods using LIDAR technology and old-school analogies (think 4x the size of Niagara Falls).
This was our first time spending the night in a tipi. It was both unique and watertight, as torrential rain drummed on the canvas all night.
Tribes painted cave walls, likely while taking shelter along a migration route following bison herds. Our new Montana ranger friends were enthusiastic about their Junior Ranger programs, and Junior Rangers had decorated the path with sidewalk chalk pictographs earlier in the day! We love seeing the creativity of our colleagues, using art in interpretation.
While sleeping bags are cozy, we welcomed a luxurious stay at the State Game Lodge. This park had been on my list for nearly 40 years, since it was pictured in the American Atlas book I had as a child. It is also among the largest and oldest in the country. We unhooked the canoes and took the morning off exploring. Good thing, because the canoes may have gotten stuck in the Needles Tunnel or gored by a Bison. The Cathedral Spires were the inspiration for Mount Rushmore, but the shiny mica and quartz mixed into the granite made them too crumbly to sculpt. We think it’s not a bit unpatriotic that we prefer these natural rock pillars over that monument to four presidents, and perhaps even Thomas Jefferson would agree.
The 1967 A-Frame Lodge is a work of art. Combine outstanding hospitality with recent modernization, and it’s a 2,000 star hotel (just like the stargazing from the park’s densely forested lake). The park is an ideal family reunion destination with swimming, mountain biking, fishing and park guided archery and fossil hunting programs. We enjoyed the Haiku trail before leaving through the park’s quaint covered bridge.
At Big Bone Lick, Thomas Jefferson and William Clark launched the field of vertebrate paleontology in America through the study of mammoth and mastodon fossils. Here I realized we had nearly followed the path of Lewis, Clark and Sacagawea some 220 years ago. We think our watertight fiberglass Big Canoes would have helped them go further up the Missouri River. But that’s history, and future adventures now await young paddlers in North Carolina State Parks.
